Rintaro Hashizume, MD, PhD

Intranasal Delivery of Targeting Nanoliposomal Therapeutics for Pediatric Glioma

Dr. Rintaro Hashizume is tackling the most challenging of brain tumor diagnosis DIPG.  The Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation is proud to support break throughs in this deadly form of cancer.

Pediatric high-grade gliomas are one of the most common cause of cancer-related death in children, and diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPGs) are the most rapidly fatal of these tumors. No significant advances in the survival of patients with DIPG have been made over the last few decades, and new therapeutic approaches are desperately needed. The infiltrative nature together with delicate tumor location in the brainstem precludes surgical resection, and the blood-brain barrier (BBB) prevents to deliver most drugs to the brain. To overcome this barrier, we will employ an innovative and effective drug delivery, intranasal delivery. Intranasal delivery is a practical, noninvasive method of bypassing the BBB to deliver drugs to the brain using unique anatomic (nerve) connection between nose to the brain, reducing unwanted systemic toxicity, and is amenable to self-administration by patients. Intranasal delivery can be optimized by the use of liposomal drug carriers which provide stable encapsulation of the drug and improve nasal penetration. To increase the specificity of liposomal drug delivery, immunoliposomes which coated with antibodies on the surface of liposomes can increase delivery of the drugs into the tumor cells, and reduce toxicity to normal cells. We will test our hypothesis that combining intranasal delivery with immunoliposomal drugs will provide a noninvasive and targeted effective drug delivery for the treatment of DIPG.